Saturday, 3 October 2009

Chiffon, chiffon, everywhere! And still feeling the ruffler love.

I had my usual Saturday morning sewing-fest today and while the washing machine & Dylon were doing their stuff on some fabric for a custom-order, I got down to serious work on Laura's Christmas pettiskirt. I used the SewMamaSew tutorial and all but finished the skirt. Since I can't give it to Laura until Christmas, I just have to post the pics here!

The waistband is some cheapy satin I had earmarked for making a nappy wrap (don't ask!) and I found the nylon chiffon on Ebay, which was a real stroke of luck. The seller still has quite a bit available if anyone else wants to try their hand at this. But don't even consider it if you don't really, really like sewing!

As you may know, I do really really like sewing and I thoroughly enjoyed making this skirt - the fabric is a dream to work with and at times I felt like a non-dancey Ginger Rogers, surrounded by clouds of white fluff. But I still wouldn't tackle it without a rotary cutter and a ruffler foot - even with these esentials, I've spent 7 hours so far on it. Some of that time was spent cursing the serger and fiddling with the settings on the ruffler, so I reckon I could shave an hour off the time on the next one.

As you can see, I didn't get the fluff at the bottom quite even but after a trim and a wash (necessary to remove bloodstain following Pin in Finger Incident), it's much better. It needs a cool iron and a bow at the waistband, I may finish the seams with some ribbon, and then I'm going to put it in the spare room wardrobe and forget all about it until Christmas Eve. Except for when I take it out to try it with the knitted top I'm making to go with it, of course. And perhaps to have a little stroke of the chiffon every now and again. And perhaps just a sneaky coo over it when I'm feeling low.